Use of modals; rules and obligation; necessity
Context listening
You are going to hear a conversation between a man called Krish and a boy called Ahmed. Look at the picture of Krish.
What can you guess about his daily routine?
Listen again and answer these questions.
Why isn’t Ahmed at school? Because he’s left school.
How many rich and famous people does Krish meet?
Why isn’t Krish at work today?
How is this job different from Krish’s last job?
What does Krish offer to do?
Listen again and match the beginnings and endings of these sentences.
Stop the recording when you need to.
You need E A think about the hotel kitchen today.
Chefs have B to work every day except Monday.
I needn’t C to spend their time in the kitchen.
You don’t have D come to the hotel one day.
I need E to talk to me if you want to know what the job is like.
I have F to work longer hours.
I had G to work all day.
I’ll have H go now.
I must I to get up early.
You must J to stay until all the food is cooked and served.
Look at your answers. Which verbs in 1–10 are not followed by to?
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GRAMMAR
Use of modals
Modals...
are always used before another verb: do, go, play etc
Can do
Could do
May do
Might do
Must do
ought to do
Shall do
Should do
Will do
Would do
Never change – they do not add -s or -ed or -ing.
He can swim.
Cans, musted, etc
are followed by a verb in its infinitive form without to:
You should get up earlier. (not You should to get up)
except for ought which must be followed by to:
You ought to get up earlier.
are immediately followed by not in the negative:
You should not / shouldn’t be late for college.
You ought not to be late for college.
go immediately before the subject in a question:
Could you wake me up?
Rules and obligation
must and have to
must and have to
For obligation, we can often use either must or have to:
I must go now or I’ll miss the bus.
or I have to go now or I’ll miss the bus.
We use must to give orders, for written notices or for strong advice, including to ourselves:
You must tell me everything. (= I feel strongly about this)
Lucia must be home by midnight. (= these are my instructions)
You must come to the hotel one day. (= I strongly advise you to)
I must go now. (= I have decided to do this, or it’s important for me to do this)
When the obligation does not come from the speaker, must is possible but have to is more usual:
You have to pay to park your car here. (= the local council has made this rule)
I have to stay until the food is cooked. (= this is part of my job)
We usually use have to for habits:
I have to get up early to cook breakfast.
Franco has to practise the piano for twenty minutes a day.
We only use must in one form and it refers only to the present or future.
For other verb forms, we use have to:
I had to work every day. (past simple)
I’ll (will) have to work longer hours. (future)
I avoided having to speak to him by crossing the street. (verb + -ing)
If I got the job, I’d (would) have to buy a car. (conditional)
NOTE! Although must and have to both express obligation, mustn’t and don’t have to have different meanings.
Mustn’t means ‘don’t do it’ and don’t have to means ‘it’s not necessary to do it’:
We mustn’t make a lot of noise. (= it is wrong to do this, it isn’t allowed)
You don’t have to stay at school until you’re 18. (= you are not obliged to but you can if you want)
have/has got to
In speech and informal writing, we often use have/has got to instead of have/has to.
Have/has got to normally refers to a particular action rather than a general situation.
We can say:
We have to work very hard this afternoon.
Don’t you have to finish that essay today?
or
We’ve got to work very hard this afternoon.
Haven’t you got to finish that essay today?
But for a general situation we do not use have got to.
Teachers have to work very long hours in my country.
(not Teachers have got to work very long hours)
When we refer to the past we use only had to.
I had to get up early when I was your age.
(not I’d got to get up)
Should
When we are talking about the right thing to do, we use should:
Adam should take more care when he’s cycling. (= it’s the right thing to do but he doesn’t do it)
I shouldn’t spend so much time watching TV. (= it’s the wrong thing to do but I still do it)
To talk about the past, we use should have + past participle:
I should have told the truth. (= this was the right thing to do but I didn’t do it)
We shouldn’t have lent her that money. (= this wasn’t the right thing to do but we did it)
Ought to
It is also possible to use ought to or ought to have in these sentences, but it is less common.
Adam should take more care when he’s cycling.
We shouldn’t have lent her that money.
Adam ought to take more care when he’s cycling.
We ought not to have lent her that money.
Necessity
Need to
We can use need (+ to infinitive) as a normal main verb in all the tenses, but it also has a modal form in the negative. We can say:
She doesn’t need to come. or She needn’t come. (= she doesn’t have to come – it’s not necessary)
In positive statements, we say:
She needs to come. (not She need come)
To talk about the past, we say:
Oliver needed to buy a computer. (= it was necessary because he didn’t have one)
Oliver didn’t need to buy a computer. (= it wasn’t necessary because he already had one)
Needn’t have has a different meaning:
Oliver needn’t have bought a computer. (= he bought a computer but his parents gave him one so now he has two!)
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